Story

Description

Anticipation for the biggest shopping day of the year is building. The dark days of winter are coming and that can only mean one thing: the fight to be the first in the mall on Black Friday has begun. The boys prepare to battle the crowds the day after Thanksgiving to get the best deal on the new gaming systems.

Locations

Behind The Scenes

Our crew came back for two weeks during the summer hiatus to specifically work on Season 17’s bad-ass new show intro.

The phrase "Winter Is Coming" is from Game of Thrones. Many parts of this episode (even the weather) parodies that popular TV series.

Where did the idea come from? The man who voiced Elmo was recently accused of underage sex abuse.

Character Art: Randy’s Eye Scar

Even creating something as little as Randy’s “eye scar” prop, requires new art and approval prior to animation…

Character Art: Lady McCormick

"Lady McCormick" got a total makeover for this episode.

Character Art: Lady McCormick's Pet

Lady McCormick's rat is a reference to Daenerys Targaryen’s dragons in "Game of Thrones". This art was used while designing special "roar" poses.

Production Art: Elmo

Check out this production art made for the "Stop Touching Me Elmo" commercial…

Production Art: Round Table

This round table was a specialty prop. As you can see, the boys "wireframes" were used here for placement.

Fat Mall Shopper: Poses

Animators used old-school WWE wrestler poses as inspiration for the movements during this fat woman's speech.

Props like Cartman’s hand drawn flyer are created by our art department.

Storyboard

Check out the storyboard from this infamous Elmo scene.

Script Excerpt

South Park is always written a scene or two at a time. This was the 1st scene written for “Black Friday”…

Pop Culture References

The writers based this Mall Cop Commander off of Peter Dinklage’s portrayal of Tyrion Lannister from "Game of Thrones".

“VHS vs. Betamax” — this is a reference to the old videotape format wars in the 80s. VHS won…at least, until DVDs came along.

When asked about his character in South Park, "Game Of Thrones" creator George R. R. Martin said: "I’ve been told [my] character in South Park is obsessed with weenies. I have to deny this as a scurrilous rumor. I have nothing against weenies, weenies are fine. But I am not obsessed with weenies. I am definitely on the boobies side of the equation. Boobies, not weenies."

This is not the first time "Game of Thrones" has been referenced in South Park. Earlier in Season 17 (in "Let Go, Let Gov"), Officer Barbrady admitted to masturbating to the show. However, the first reference came during Season 16's "Cartman Finds Love", when Garrison was giving a lecture on the seven families of Westeros.

Bonus Factoids

Members of Cartman’s army include: Clyde, Token, Butters, Timmy, Scott Malkinson, the Star Trek kids, and the Kindergartners.